The Imperius Curse
by Meowster99
Summary: Harry has just defeated Lord Voldemort. But what happens when the Death Eaters want revenge? And what happens when it is not what is expected? RonHermione, HarryGinny Rated T just in case
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Harry rubbed Ginny's shoulders as they reclined on an elegant master bed. The bed was ivory with red rose petals scattered across the top. The walls of the room they were in were the lightest, gentlest shade of olive green one could imagine. That, combined with the ivory carpet, the ivory bed, the rose petals, the red plush pillows, the red furniture, and the crackling fireplace combined together to make Harry's and Ginny's honeymoon suite.

The wedding had been grand. It had been an outdoor wedding in a large open field. The wedding itself had taken place in a sort of overlarge gazebo. There were real fairies and to light up the dark of night. The whole place was decorated with gold, silver, and white gauze (Fleur, of course, helping with most of the decorating). Flowers and candles had been enchanted to sparkle and glisten and light up the whole place. There were muggle repelling charms set upon the whole thing. When all the work had been done the whole area was glowing, and shining, and sparkling, and glistening so much, it was enough to take anybody's breath away.

Hermione and Fleur had been their Bride's Maids. Ron had been their Best Man. At last minute they decided on Brigitte (Fleur and Bill's daughter) to be their flower girl and Fred Jr. (Fred and Angelina's son) to be their ring bearer.

To Harry, the only thing that made the scene more beautiful, was the sight of Ginny, her hair in a delicate French bun and her dress flowing and white. It had been the happiest day of Harry's life.

So now, the whole day was over. They had finished partying, and Harry and Ginny were married, and they were enjoying their first night as a married couple in their splendid honeymoon suite.

It was so surreal to be without worries or responsibilities after so long. As Harry sat on the bed he couldn't help reminiscing over the passed three years…


	2. Voldemort's Defeat

Chapter 1: What to do next

"Well, that's that, isn't it?" asked Ron, his face covered in ash and soot. His robes were terribly ripped, his nose was bleeding sluggishly and there was blood down the front of his robes. "You did it, Harry. You killed Voldemort."

"Why is," replied Harry, fiercely, "That now that he's dead you can say his name?"

"Oh, _Harry_! I can't believe it. You did it! You defeated him!" Hermione tittered.

"Stop it, I couldn't have killed him without your guys' help. It was, well, _easy_ once all the horcruxes were destroyed. He was getting weak and one good Avadacadavra finished him off rather nicely."

"Harry, you can't say that your un-… well, unaffected by this. I mean we just spent a year and a half tracking down horcruxes to kill Voldemort. Then you _did_ kill Voldemort. What are we going to do now? We did what nobody else could- we're famous. What happens next?" Hermione said all this very nervously.

Harry laughed. "You can't be serious, Hermione. You are the smartest witch I've ever met and you think we're through? You think that we killed Voldemort and we can live happily ever after? Might I remind you that there are currently 50 Death Eaters out there wanting to kill not only me, but both of you guys too, probably everybody in the Order, for that matter. We aren't even half way done, Hermione. The Ministry's bagged. They aren't going to help us. Our next step is to contact the Order of the Phoenix. Or at least, what's left of the Order. Then we can start picking them off like they've been picking us off."

" Harry, that's not going to work. Including us there are about 15 of the Order left versus 50 Death Eaters. We can't win. Not even if we were all as powerful as Dumbledore. He died just as easily as anybody else would." Ron said these last two sentences with sadness and bitterness in his voice.

For the next few minutes the three of them observed the dry wasteland before them. It looked like a battleground. This was where Harry had killed Voldemort. Harry had passed out and Ron and Hermione had found him (Harry had insisted that he had done this final bit alone). They had set fire to Voldemort and let him burn. They had taken just the ring off of his finger as proof of his death. It was black opal with a silver dark mark picture set into it.

"I don't think that is a problem. We have more people than that Ron. You're thinking of the Order as we left it, now that all this time has passed there are all of the Weasley's, Neville, us, and a few other people would probably have joined by now, too."

"Great, Harry- but Ron's right. That's maybe 25 to 50, they still outnumber us 1 to 2."

"Hermione, Ron, come on. Without a leader the Death Eaters will be way less effective as before."

Ron groaned, "Haaaarry. By now there will be a new leader. Like Snape or Lucius Malfoy."

"Not Snape, now that Bellatrix and he's got little Severus Jr. to tend to. Lucius is still in Azkaban."

Hermione piped up, "That's not the point. The point is that somebody new has taken over by now."

"It's not that easy. All the Death Eaters are all as powerful as the next one. If any of them became leader the other's would get jealous and bump him from power."

"Maybe we should just leave them alone for a while. They might kill each other off like the giants," Ron added hopefully.

"No, we can't do that."

"Harry, let's go. Now that… that Mum and Dad are… are… gone, they left me the house. We can stay there for a while… deciding what to… what to… do," Ron mumbled.

With a swoosh of their cloaks and a crack, they disapparated to The Burrow.


	3. The Burrow

Chapter 2: The Burrow

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed.

There were people in The Burrow. Several tall black cloaked figures. The three could just barely make out that they were searching the house.

"What are we going to do? Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! They're looking for us!" Hermione squealed.

"Shut up, Hermione," Harry said, "We're going to sneak up on the house and see who it is."

"Are you bloody mad, Harry? They're Death Eaters!"

"Not necessarily, Ron. They could be some of the Order looking for us, or… something…"

"No they aren't! The Order knows where we are! The Death Eaters would have known Voldemort died when they Dark Mark disappeared. The only person that was with him was Wormtail and he's dead now. There are plenty other Death Eaters to come after us. Don't go, Harry. We'll just disapparated to the Headquarters of the Order and tell them," pleaded Hermione.

"Just let me have a quick peek inside, just to make sure."

"We'll all go, quickly, then disapparate. Okay?" Ron asked. With a nod from the other two they slowly approached the house.

As they got closer to the house, Harry whispered, "Wands out." The other two didn't need to be told twice. They slowly approached the window.

CRACK

The three of them jumped. "P-p-p-prob-ab-ably an an-an-imal," Hermione stuttered.

They slowly peered through the window. A heart stopping sight met their eyes. Even worse than anything they could have imagined. There was nobody there.

"But that means-" Harry began.

"Heh heh heh. Look what the cat dragged in." There was no disguising that drawling self- assured voice. Draco Malfoy was calmly standing behind them, backed by another 10 or so Death Eaters that had unmistakably just left the house.

As Malfoy lazily reached for his wand Harry cried, "NOW!"

With another swoosh and crack the three of them once again disapparated into the night.


	4. The Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 3: The plan

"They're all over my house! They were searching for us. Should we go into hiding or… or fight back…"

"Don't hurt yourself, Ron," Fred sneered. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny, Tonks, Lupin, and Bill were all sitting around the table at #12 Grimauld Place. They were the only members of the Order at headquarters. Tonks was busy at work mending various cuts and injuries that the three had obtained.

"The obvious thing to do is to try and gather more followers to fight back," Lupin said with absolutely no enthusiasm, as though he didn't quite fancy the idea.

"No," Tonks said, "The people who are going to fight are the ones who are already doing it. What we can do is put some Aurors on the case. They shouldn't be in the Order… but their _job_ is to catch the Death Eaters. They'll do it."

"So can we leave it to you, Tonks, to convince them. Maybe at work…" Harry finished feebly.

"Yeah, I'll try, Harry. I'm not making any promises though."

"So now what exactly are all of us going to do? I mean, Tonks has a job, but what about the rest of us?" Ginny asked.

"I'm confused…" Ron started.

"As always," muttered Fred in a stage whisper.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Enough, you two!" Charlie cut in.

"You're not our mum and dad, you can't boss us!" Fred retorted.

The room went quiet. The Weasley's' eyes shadowed over as they remembered their parents. Murdered at the hands of Snape- just as Dumbledore had been. The minutes passed as they all remembered the sunken, staring eyes of Arthur and Molly Weasley's bodies.

"Everybody needs a job," Harry said, feebly and quietly.

"What?" asked Ron. This time Fred didn't comment.

"We all need things to do to scare the Death Eaters and to put them back in their place. Tonks is going to talk to the Aurors. Lupin… can you talk to the werewolves? Now that Fenrir Greyback is dead they might be willing to see the other side. Um… Bill, you can tell the rest of the Order what we're doing and try to give them jobs. Fred and George, you are in business. Try to spread the word through your products. Ginny… uh, Gin-"

"I'm going with you, Ron, and Hermione. Don't try to talk me out of it. I'm going. I just finished at Hogwarts so I'm fully trained. I'm even more than you three because you didn't finish school. Even if you don't let me go, I'll be useless because I don't have a job. So don't fight me." Ginny finished. She had a slightly mulish look on her face daring anybody to challenge her, but at the same time she looked scared as if she didn't really think herself brave enough to go.

At once Fred and George erupted into argument,

"If she gets to go then-"

"No way does-"

"I'm going too-"

"Get to go-"

"Not fair, I'm going-"

"ENOUGH! Ginny will go, you two will sell products. She's always been better at dueling anyway. So stop complaining. You two will get your fair share of fighting too, everybody will." Bill reasoned smoothly.

"And now," Lupin cut in, "You three should go and take a bath, you're filthy."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked down at they're robes. Sure enough they were covered in dirt, dust, rips, and blood.


	5. Back to the Burrow

Chapter 4: Back to The Burrow

"Well, I got the point that we're the, uh, _main_ people attacking the Death Eaters… but… what exactly are we going to do?" Hermione asked timidly.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked around the room Harry had been sleeping in and where they were currently sitting. Tonks, Lupin, Fred, George, and Bill had all left already to start their jobs. Ginny was still asleep.

"I think what we should do is track the Death Eaters," Harry said. "We need to find out where they are, how many are there, and how many are there to fight so that it won't be a surprise when we attack."

Just then Ginny stumbled into the room clad in only her sleeping gown. Harry's face turned steadily red, but Ron and Hermione greeted her as if nothing was wrong.

"What are ya talking abou'?" Ginny managed to mumble through a yawn.

"What we are going to do, Harry suggested that we track them down, find out where they are and how many are strong then report back, so the enemy doesn't have the element of surprise."

"Sou'ds good to me," Ginny mumbled.

"Then let's go," Harry said.

"What, now?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, now. What are we going to do, wait for when we feel like it? Pack a few essentials we can always come back. Let's go in a half an hour."

Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Ginny all went their separate ways to pack and to do a few last minute tasks.

"OK, let's go," Harry ordered.

"Wait… where exactly are we going?" Hermione asked.

"I thought that we'd start at The Burrow, then we can track them from there."

SWOOSH CRACK

They were standing outside of The Burrow. They looked around. Ron brought their attention to some footprints.

"Oh my gosh, Harry. That was the stupidest idea in the world. 'Let's start at The Burrow, we can track them from there.' Harry, they _disapparated,_ there's no way to track them!" Ron said snidely.

"You're wrong. I never said we could track their footprints, what I meant was that we might find something they left behind. You saw the Death Eaters that were there. There were maybe 12 out of the 50 Death Eaters. The obvious place to come is here because this is where we've been staying when we haven't been destroying horcruxes. So when the others came the first Death Eaters would want to leave some kind of signal to show they were already there. Now we just need to find it."

"Could this be it?" asked Ginny. She was holding out a note. It read:

_Fellow Death Eaters,_

_I'm sure that you know that the Dark Lord is dead. We came here to track down the "chosen one". Go back. They are not here and will not return here. They saw us searching._

_The new Dark Lord has ordered us to search for them. We are going to search Hogsmead. Sounds stupid to you? We have our orders._

_Malfoy_

"Well, that's discreet," Hermione observed.


	6. Hogsmeade

Chapter 5: Hogsmead

"Who's up for a butter beer?" Ron asked. They had just arrived at Hogsmead.

"_Ron_ we just got here!" Ginny scolded.

"But I'm _hungry_." Ron whined. Hermione sighed and pulled a bag of muggle chips from her bag and handed them to Ron.

All four of them noticed how odd it was in Hogsmead that day. Nobody was there. It looked deserted. As if on instinct all four of them drew their wands.

"Let's look around a bit," Harry said.

They looked for 20 minutes, but they couldn't find anybody.

"Harry, there's nobody here, let's go," Ron begged.

"No, you- err, _we_ haven't looked by the Shrieking Shack yet," Harry said.

They quietly tiptoed off to the Shrieking Shack. As they went Harry and Ginny slowly started to fall behind the others.

It was quick and almost silent. One minute the four of them had been walking, the next minute Ron and Hermione had been captured and Harry and Ginny were watching them, a look of triumph in their eyes.

"What the bloody hell-" Ron started.

But Harry cut them off, "No, no, no, Ron. No dirty language, please." He was smirking and his arm was around Ginny's waist.

"You… you… _planned_ this? But… but why? Why would you do this, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Glory, riches, power… What else? What does it matter if I'm on the good or bad side if I win?" Harry asked.

"You've got to be kidding. Harry, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Gasp Have you been Imperiused?"

"No, of course not. I suppose you want to know what's going to happen to you. Well, you'll be dragged off and put in a special prison just for the Order of the Phoenix. Then we will go and capture the rest of the Order and put them in there with you. Then we will take over the Ministry and yada-yada etc. Any last questions?"

"Yeah, will you go to-"

"I have a question, what about Ginny? Ginny, you can't seriously want to go along with this." Hermione half asked, half pleaded.

"Don't I? Why wouldn't I? I love Harry. We are going to be married. I'm going to be the Dark Lady." Ginny's eyes glazed over and went out of focus.

"Ginny, you're a b-"

"Shut up, Ron." Hermione cut in. She was quiet, but she gave Ron a meaningful look. Ron recognized the look that said that she had just found out something important and meaningful. So he shut up.

The Death Eaters took Ron and Hermione away through sidelong apparition.


	7. The Prison

Chapter 6: In the Prison

Ron and Hermione had just arrived at the prison. It was less like a prison and more like a giant cage.

"I can't believe Harry and Ginny. I never thought that… they'd of all people…" Ron started.

"No. Don't think that about them. I recognized their symptoms; they're both under the Imperius curse. Did you see the way their eyes were glazed over and out of focus? It means that they are under the curse. God, I wonder why they chose Harry and Ginny…"

They mulled over this information for a while. Thinking hard. Ron noticed Hermione fidget uncomfortably.

"Man I wish it wasn't so cold in here!" Hermione said anxiously.

Ron took off his scarf, gloves, and hat and put them on Hermione.

"Well, I guess that's a _little_ better," Hermione flirted. Ron took this as an open invitation. He slunk his arm around her shoulders and drew in a little closer.

"At least while we're stuck in here we'll be cozy," Ron sniggered. "But I'm worried. We need to alert the Order, but how?"

Hermione thought for a couple of minutes.

"Easy! I can't believe I didn't think of it right away. Patronuses! Remember in the 6th year how Harry told us Tonks sent a Patronus to tell the other Aurors that Harry was safe? Well, we'll do that too. Our patronuses can pass on the warning."

They drew their wands, focused on a happy thought (Hermione's was getting out of there, Ron's was Hermione), and said the incantation. Relaying their message to the patronuses they swooshed off into the distance.


	8. The Patronuses

Chapter 7: The Order of the Phoenix

"I'm worried. They were supposed to keep in touch with us! I knew that Fred and I should have gone with them!" George stated.

Just as he said that, as if it triggered the arrival, the patronuses flashed in through the door. The silver otter and the lion pranced about, delivered their message and vanished.

A great silence filled the room. Nobody spoke, for they were all thinking of what they had just seen. They were having a hard time deciphering it. Was the patronuses to tell them that they were all right? Or were they to tell them that they were in trouble? Or something else?

"Oh my gosh… I can't believe it…" Lupin said, he sounded close to breakdown.

"What? Don't believe what? Did you understand it?" Fred asked, half eagerly, half apprehensive.

"Oh, yes. Don't you see? There's an otter for Hermione, and a lion for Ron…. But-"

"Where are the stag and the fox? What happened to Harry and Ginny?" Bill finished.

Everybody was quiet for a while more. They were all thinking of horrible ways that Harry and Ginny had been killed by the Death Eaters.

All except for George, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find them."

Tonks replied sadly, "George… they're gone, they're dead. It's not worth risking our lives to recover the bodies…"

"Well, the way I see it is that Harry and Ginny aren't with Ron and Hermione. They're in trouble. They could be kidnapped, or hurt, or lost, or _anything_. We need to go find them. Even if they are dead, we can't take the risk. Obviously Ron and Hermione need help. They could have waited to apparate here to tell us, but if they needed help or were in trouble they would warn us."

Everybody thought about this for a moment. Then, all in unison, Lupin, Tonks, Neville, Fred, George, Bill, and Charlie all went off to prepare for the journey.


	9. The New Dark Lord

Chapter 8: The New Dark Lord

Ron stared at Hermione's sleeping face. It was so angelic, so perfect, like porcelain. He couldn't believe how he hadn't noticed it before. He could feel a deep, aching feeling that he was sure was love for her. Of course, it could be something to do with being trapped in a dark cage.

To make matters worse, Ron and Hermione had tried everything to break free. The cage had all kinds of charms on it, from the charm that kept people from Disapparating, to the charm that made the cage indestructible. Ron and Hermione had not been able to break out. All they could do was hope that the Order had seen and understood the Patronuses and was coming to help.

With a groan, Hermione rolled over in her sleep so that she was facing the opposite side of the prison than Ron. Ron lied down; he supposed that he should get some sleep for a fresh attempt to break out in the morning.

Before he could so much as close his eyes, he heard footsteps coming down the hall to the room with their cage. Ron shook Hermione to wake her up. He couldn't deny that the sheer simplicity of touching her made him nervous, but pleased.

She woke up suddenly, quickly, and fully- as if she had been up for hours already. She didn't need to be told why he woke her up, for by now the door was opening and in stepped Harry flanked by Snape, Malfoy, Crabb, and LeStrange.

"Aaaaah, my _friends_. I'm so happy to see you're well," Harry said in a mocking tone of voice. This time Ron noticed that Harry's eyes were out of focus and his breathing was a little heavier than regular.

"Come on, Harry, we all know that you're under the Imperi-" Ron started but stopped when Hermione gave him a fierce jab in the ribs.

"What he means is… uh… you're not acting like yourself. Are you sure that you don't have a cold or something?" she said feebly.

Ron snorted, "That must be one _hell_ of a cold."

Harry fixed Ron with one out of focused eye, and said, "Crucio."

Ron fell to the floor writhing and shrieking in agony. He clawed at his face as if that would relieve the pain. His whole body was being torn apart, burning, and freezing at the same time. He felt as if people were stabbing him all over with blunt knives and tearing him up from the inside out. The pain wasn't receding.

"Levicorpus!" Hermione cried, tears streaming down her face. It was the first spell that had come to mind. But it had the desired effect, Ron stopped twitching and layed motionless on the floor

Harry was hanging in midair as if on an invisible string. Snape's eyes were flashing dangerously. He said the counter jinx and Harry fell to the floor, but righted himself instantly. Of course Snape would know the counter jinx; he had invented the spell.

"Why you stupid little-" Harry began but before he could finish, the Order of the Phoenix came bursting into the room.


	10. The Prophesy

Chapter 9: The Prophecy

The second the Order of the Phoenix came in the door Snape had his wand on his Dark Mark, calling the other Death Eaters to the fight. Before he had so much as moved his wand from his arm, the fighting had started.

The Death Eaters were outnumbered, although when the others go there they would take care of that. The Order members who weren't fighting were freeing Ron and Hermione from their prison so they could help too.

Tonks was battling Bellatrix Lestrange with a fierce glint in her eye. She was going to avenge her cousin if it was the last thing she did. They traded hexes and blocking spells as if they were in class, although it was plain that they were both saving their energy for later on in the battle.

"Trying to avenge our _dear_ cousin. There's no need for that, although if you stick around much longer you can rejoice in meeting again," Lestrange taunted.

Tonks, her blue eyes glowing and glinting in rage raised her wand, "Cru-"

"No! Don't Tonks! Stupefy! _Stupefy_," Lupin stunned Lestrange. "Tonks, don't hurt or kill them, stun them. We don't want to kill them, we want to capture them."

Tonks, her eyes glinting again, turned her back on her husband to pick a fight with a different Death Eater.

Ron was battling Harry now.

"Harry, mate-" he blocked a spell. "Listen, you don't know what-" he blocked another spell. "You're doing. Listen-" he blocked yet another spell. "Listen! You stupid- Bloody Hell, Harry!" Ron said, nursing a bloody gash up one of his arms. "_Stupefy_!" Harry fell to the floor with a thunk.

Hermione rushed over to magically sew up Ron's wound. The second she had finished, four more Death Eaters rushed through the door. Ron looked around the room.

Bellatrix, Harry, Knott, and Malfoy were down. Tonks was fighting Snape. Neville was fighting Crabbe. Lupin was fighting Goyle. Bill was fighting Dolohov. Charlie was fighting another Death Eater Ron did not know the name of. All the other Death Eaters, including Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle Senior, were currently in Azkaban.

Then Tonks fell to the floor. Ron could not see if she was alive or dead. He ran over to take over for her. Snape and he were firing hexes at each other, but it wasn't even close to a fair fight. Snape did the leg locker curse and Ron fell to the floor.

"Well, well, would you look at that. Weasley is going to die just like his parents, lying helplessly on the floor with a certain Death Eater over them. It is just _too_ sad. I must finish it before I dissolve into tears," Snape said all this with the utmost sincerety and sarcasm. "_Avada Kada-_" Snape made an odd choking noise. His voice went harsh and

un-Snapelike, he fell to his knees.

"_The followers of the Dark Lord will be punished… they shall…" _Snape choked out,_ "not… escape… again…forceful… winds will… make sure everything is done… right… the rightful… fighters and… workers…shall be rewarded… beyond… dreams… the… balance will be… restored… evil… will be gone…from world,"_ Snape looked weak and vulnerable. Ron's curse wore off and he stunned Snape with a flick of his wand as easily as pouring tea.

He looked behind him, all the Death Eaters and Tonks were lying on the floor. The rest of the Order was staring at him oddly, all except for Lupin who was sobbing next to Tonks.

"Did Snape just make a prophecy?" Neville asked unsurely.


	11. Ginny

Chapter 10:

The Order was gathered around Tonks. They had felt a pulse, but were all quite sure that she needed Saint Mungo's badly.

"I'll take her. I'll hold her and apparate to St. Mungo's." Lupin said softly.

"No, you can't do that. You can't apparate inside this room or else Hermione and I would be far away from here by now. Carry her outside, then apparate." Ron informed Lupin.

Lupin didn't need telling twice, he picked her up as if he was cradling a baby, and walked out of the room. The Order turned to their second problem, Harry.

"How do we get him… um… un- Imperiused?" asked Neville.

"As far as either of us know, he has to by will. Or the wizard casting the spell has to stop casting it, or die." Fred said.

"The tricky thing is, how did the Death Eater's put it on Harry? He's always been able to throw off the Imperius curse!" Hermione asked. Everybody thought about this for a few moments.

"I suppose that they must have weakened him some way," Bill pondered aloud.

"There's another thing," put in Ron. "He was with us the whole time. No Death Eater had a chance to curse him."

"Time turners…" Hermione thought out loud.

"Can't have been, they were all destroyed remember?" Ron said waspishly, as if she should have remembered such a thing.

"No… come to think of it, she's right. It was in the Daily Prophet. There were several being used at the time that you were at the Ministry, so not all of them were destroyed. That must be how they did it… They took Harry when neither of you were looking… Then they Imperiused him, and put him back so it looked like he was there the whole time…" Charlie said all of this in a way that sounded like he was trying to piece together a particularly difficult jigsaw puzzle.

"Aren't we forgetting something?" asked Fred. Both George and he looked quite upset. "Like… our sister?"

Ron jumped to his feet. Charlie's eyes flashed in worry and panic. The scars on Bill's face from Fenrir Greyback stretched as his face twisted in realization.

"Don't you worry your tiny little heads about it," George insisted. "Didn't you wonder where we had gone while you guys were fighting? We went to look for Ginny of course. She's in the other room, asleep. The person who Imperiused them must have thought that she wasn't an able fighter and drugged her… or just ordered her to sleep or something."

They all followed Fred and George out of the room and into another one a little ways down the hall. There Ginny lay on a comfortable-looking bed in a plain-looking room.

Fred frowned. He went over to the bed and put his head on her chest. "She's not breathing."


	12. The Bodies

Chapter 11: The bodies

Ron stiffened, Charlie gasped like a fish out of water, Bill let out a startled cry, but the twins were smirking.

"We thought you deserved a little punishment for forgetting about her. She's fine… asleep, but fine," George said.

There were several moments in which Ron tussled with the twins, Hermione's eyes were still wide with shock, and Charlie and Bill scowled, but it settled down rather quickly.

"We need to carry Ginny and Harry outside then apparate with them pack to headquarters," Charlie advised.

"What do we do with the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked. "And what about that prophecy? Did you guys notice how once Snape made that prophecy our curses hit them and they didn't even try to block them… maybe they were in shock?"

"Yeah… maybe…" Bill said, he was obviously thinking hard. "Do you remember what the prophecy said Ron?"

"Yeah, actually, I do. I didn't understand it but it said…" Ron closed his eyes concentrating hard. " '_The followers of the Dark Lord will be punished, they shall not escape again. Forceful winds will make sure everything is done right. The rightful fighters and workers shall be rewarded beyond their dreams. The balance will be restored, evil will be gone from the world.' "_

"How did you do that," Fred asked. "You just remembered all of it… just like that."

"It has to do with prophecies. Harry said that when Professor Trelawney made that prophecy to Dumbledore, he remembered it all also." Hermione said. Her eyes were bright with excitement. "We need to decipher it! If we find out what it means then we can work it… most of it made since, but what was that about 'forceful winds'?"

Fred and George sniggered at the mention of 'forceful winds', but did not say anything.

"We're not going to work on it here or now," Charlie said sternly. "We have to get to the headquarters and do something with the Death Eaters. I suggest contacting the Ministry to come and get them and put them in Azkaban… the stunning spells should last a couple hours more."

So that's exactly what they did. Fred found some parchment and a quill in a desk in the next room over. Charlie wrote the letter and put it on the desk. Tapping it with his wand the letter disappeared.

"How will they find the place?" Ron asked.

"The _Indagio_ spell, the tracking spell. I placed one on the letter and they can trace back to where the letter was sent. I told them in the letter," Charlie explained. "Now let's get Harry and Ginny back to headquarters."


	13. Strength

Chapter 12: Strength

Charlie frowned; Ginny and Harry lay next to each other on the bed. They couldn't find a way to remove to curse.

Charlie slammed his fist on the bedside table, "We don't have much time! The second the Death Eater that did this' Stunning spell wears off they're back on their feet. That gives us about two hours to do this."

Bill was leaning back in his chair, his eyes closed, thinking, "Harry and Ginny could both throw off the Imperius curse… although from what I heard Ginny only did it once…"

Ron and Hermione stared at him. "When did she ever get the chance?" Ron asked.

"When you guys were off destroying Horcruxes, before Moody died, he gave lessons to all the, uh, younger members of the Order. Ginny could throw off the Imperius curse, but she only did it once. Neither Luna, Neville, George, or I could do even that." Fred informed them with an odd mixture of pride and disappointment.

His eyes shadowed over and everybody knew that he was thinking of what had happened to Luna and Neville.

"Speaking of Neville… where is he? I mean he was at the fight… wasn't he?" Ron asked.

"Um, yeah. But you know, he was never himself after Luna… you know… his parents were one thing but when he lost his wife, too. He kind of… went a little crazy when we were fighting the Death Eaters. So we made him leave, by then we had things under control… but he was really wild. He probably would have killed himself. He's probably at St. Mungo's visiting Luna," Charlie finished the story a little sadly.

"Back to the problem at hand…" George urged.

They thought (Ron noticed how they had seemed to do a lot of this boring past time lately).

"I have an idea!" Hermione said proudly. "They could both throw off the Imperius curse… even though Ginny only did it once I'm sure she would have been able to under the urgency of the situation… so the only reason they couldn't have is if the Death Eaters weakened them somehow. So we need to give them extra strength so they can throw it off!"

"Okay… that's a good idea…" Bill started. "But we would need a _lot_ of strength to help them out of this stupor."

"Yes, the strengthening spell is _alerium_. So we need to add the annexation. So the spell would be… hold on, I need to look through some of my books," Hermione hurried off to her bedroom.

"Well… I guess she's taking care of things…" Fred said, slightly uneasy. "Is this the only way to fix this?"

"They either have to break the spell themselves, the Death Eater has to stop casting it, or the Death Eater has to be killed… or stopped… I don't know, I'm not an expert," Charlie answered. "If this doesn't work, we're going to have to figure out which Death Eater did this, and kill them."

Nobody looked like they liked this idea very much. They heard footsteps rushing down the hall and Hermione came bursting into the room.

"Alo-alere-alui-altumium!" She cried without so much as a hello.

The effect was terrifying. Harry started squirming in his bed wheezing and his face was turning a bright red, as if he was suffocating, Ginny just lie there getting paler and paler. Everybody in the room started panicking, but nobody moved to help them.

Suddenly Harry gasped and opened his eyes as if he had just come up for air after nearly drowning in water. He sat there in a daze his chest heaving in fresh lungful after lungful of oxygen. He had broken through. He looked over at Ginny and his eyes turned into a wild, panicked, rolling fit. He put his hand on Ginny's arm and the Order couldn't see what he was doing but they felt energy rush through Harry into Ginny.

"Excess… alo-alere-alui-altumium," Hermione mumbled.

Harry fainted. Ginny opened her bleary eyes, the color returning slightly to her face, and she, too, fainted.


	14. Defining the Prophecy

Chapter 13: Defining the Prophecy

Everybody stared at Ginny and Harry, momentarily shocked.

"I think the best thing to do is just leave them here to rest," Charlie said. "Let's go to the kitchen and try to decipher the prophecy."

When they had all taken a seat at the table, Bill asked, "Ron, could you write down the prophecy so we could examine it?" He handed Ron some parchment and a quill from a desk near the table. Ron finished and pushed it into the center of the table. It read:

The followers of the Dark Lord will be punished- they shall not escape again. Forceful winds will make sure everything is done right. The rightful fighters and workers shall be rewarded beyond their dreams. The balance will be restored; evil will be gone from the world.

"Well, let's get cracking," Hermione said cheerfully, this was her forte. "Okay, well, 'The followers of the Dark Lord will be punished'-"

"That can only be good, right?" Fred asked.

"No, actually," Charlie informed them. "The Dark Lord can refer to Voldemort, or whoever took over for Voldemort, but it can also refer to Harry because he was called the 'Dark Lord' by the Death Eaters. I think that the one that cursed them must have been the _real_ new Dark Lord. So maybe we should figure out whom that is before we continue. Ron, Hermione?"

"Well," Ron said. "Snape, Malfoy, Lestrange, and Crabbe were the only ones in the room with Harry. So it has to be one of them. I recon it can't be Crabbe; he's too stupid. I don't think it's Lestrange either… the Dark Lord didn't seem to like her very much. That leaves Malfoy and Snape."

"I think it must be Snape," Hermione said. "Malfoy is too young, they'd want an expert. Snape, Lestrange, and a few others are the only seniors left. So… it's probably Snape."

"Okay, let's say that for now," Bill said.

"So, so far we know that either they will be punished, or us. But there's a glitch. I think it's them because it says 'the followers' and we don't follow Harry, he's not our leader," Ron pointed out. "Harry, Hermione, and I know from experience that prophecies are either totally wrong or deadly accurate."

"I agree," George said. "Because it says after that 'they will not escape again' and we never escaped. The Death Eaters have many times."

"Wrong," Hermione said. "Ron and I just escaped didn't we? Oh my gosh! I just thought of something. It says 'the followers' of the 'Dark Lord'. Ron and I fit in with both of those things because we followed Harry when we were destroying Horcruxes, he was our leader."

"Greeee-at," Ron said, sarcastically. "So either the Death Eaters or Hermione and I are going to be 'punished' and will 'not escape again'. Joy."

"The next line is 'Forceful winds will make sure everything is done right.' Bloody hell. No idea what that means," Fred informed them, half sniggering.

Charlie gave him a dirty look, " 'winds' can mean many different things. It can mean weather, spirits, souls, and force, energy… a lot of things. The way it sounds is that some souls or spirits are going to watch and 'make sure everything is done right'. It also says 'forceful'. So, well, a 'forceful wind' for us could be Dumbledore. A 'forceful wind' for them could be Voldemort. So if that _is _the case- which I bet it is- then depending on who is stronger, Dumbledore or Voldemort, either Ron and Hermione or the Death Eaters will meet the fate of the first line."

This gave the people around the table quite a lot to think about.

"Why do you think that that's right?" Fred asked.

"Because the most 'forceful' of our winds is Dumbledore and the most 'forceful' of their winds is Voldemort. And," Charlie shrugged. "It just makes sense. What's the next line?"

" 'The rightful fighters and workers shall be rewarded beyond their dreams. The balance will be restored; evil will be gone from the world.' _That_ sounds like the Death Eaters will be destroyed. I mean, we are the 'rightful workers' and they are the 'evil'. So that settles it right?" George asked nervously.

"No," Hermione answered. "This prophecy was made by a Death Eater, so we don't know if it's _their _'evil' and 'rightful workers', or _our_ 'evil' and 'rightful workers'."

"So our definition of the prophecy is: either Hermione and I or the Death Eaters will snuff it and the other side will live happily ever after depending on if either Dumbledore or Voldemort is stronger? Leave it to Snape to prophesize something like that," Ron summarized brutally.


	15. The Note

Chapter 14: The Note

They heard a tired moan from the bedroom.

"I'll go," Ron said.

"Me too," Hermione added.

They got up from their chairs and started up the stairs. Behind them they heard the twins, Charlie, and Bill continue their discussion. They made their way to the bedroom and peeked through the door. What they saw made them stop in their tracks, wide- eyed. Harry was leaning over Ginny, gently brushing the hair away from her face, a most curious expression on his face.

Ron grabbed Hermione's arm and backed up to the top of the stairs. Then he said very loudly, "**I wonder if Harry's awake yet, what do you think Hermione**?"

"**Oh! I agree, uh, maybe we should check on him**," Hermione said catching on.

As they entered the room a second time they saw Harry sitting on the edge of the bed, looking in their direction. Ron went over to him, "How are you, mate?" he asked.

"Fine," Harry said. "A little stiff. God! A little drained, stiff, and dead- feeling!"

"Maybe you should come downstairs and, uh, catch up on everything," Hermione said.

Harry turned and looked at Ginny.

"When she wakes up we give you permission to run up here as fast as you can to see her," Ron said a little stiffly. He wasn't sure he approved. Then again whenever Hermione looked in his direction his stomach did somersaults, so maybe he shouldn't talk.

As they walked downstairs they heard Fred saying, "… stupid Ministry! 'We can't take care of it, it is against our safety policies', what crap!"

"What?" Ron asked as they entered the room. With a scowl, George pushed a letter toward him.

Members of the Order,

We are sorry to inform you that we cannot take care of the Death Eaters. For it is against our safety policy in section three paragraph two to confront any Death Eaters we have not encountered ourselves, for the curse/ curses placed upon them may backfire. Next time you capture Death Eaters please bring them in to the Ministry immediately where they therefore shall be shipped to Azkaban.

Thank you,

Remilda Vane 

"Leave it to old Remilda Vane to enter a department like magic safety!" Ron exclaimed.

There was another moan from upstairs and in a second Harry was out of his seat and dashing up the stairs.

Fred watching him leave, said, "You know, I think Harry fancies her… Maybe being cursed by Death Eaters together is one of those things that cause life- companionship."

Everybody laughed. "But, you know, this whole letter thing makes sense!" Hermione said, her voice rising to an excited squeak. "If the Ministry had just taken care of them, then we'd never have to fight them again and the 'forceful winds' wouldn't have a chance to aid us! This _had_ to happen!"

"What had to happen?" Ginny asked as Harry and she came down the stairs and into the kitchen.

With a small smile, Ron started to fill Harry and Ginny in.


	16. Without Preparation

Chapter 15: Without Preparation

"Let's go," Harry insisted.

"What- no, Harry, we aren't going to push this prophecy… for all we know it could be meant to happen in a few years… I mean… if we don't_ have_ to fight…" Ron said, speaking slowly and carefully as if to a person who was in a closed ward.

"Yes we do," Harry said impatiently. "We have to go now and fulfill the prophecy. I'm not going to sit around and wait for it to happen."

Harry marched out the front door without even a look back at the door. The others exchanged quick glances then scurried after him. He was stopped in the middle of the street, staring into the distance. He was a strange, pale color under the streetlight. They rushed over to him and looked in the direction that he was looking. There in the shadows they saw the Death Eaters.

Snape stepped out of the shadows and said, "My fellow Death Eaters informed me that I had made a prophecy. Hearer of the prophecy, will you tell me the exact words?" He asked Ron.

"Like hell," Ron said bluntly.

Snape was examining his fingernails, "I don't think you _quite_ understand your, er… situation. My Imperius curse resulted in the prophecy. The aftermath, Potter didn't fall for it immediately. You see, I had to get a dementor to weaken him before I could curse him. However, there is such thing as _concilio,_" Hermione gasped in recognition. "Or the result of a difficult spell. It is rare, but it results in the caster doing something drastic he would not have done otherwise. So because I cast the Imperius curse I have made a prophecy. Therefore it belongs to me and I _demand_ that you tell me, Weasley."

"No, I don't think so. The Imperius curse is illegal, therefore the prophecy doesn't belong to you _legally_," Ron reasoned. "You heard parts of it from your Death Eaters before they fainted, I believe, that's enough for you to know that there will be a war between us. Let's not put that off any longer."

As if Ron had turned a switch, everybody realized why they were there, and went about it.

Sorry this chapter is so short! Feel free to review, I'm open to constructive criticisms. I'll put out the next chapter soon.


	17. The War of Prophecy 1021

Chapter 16: The War of Prophecy 1021

Everybody was throwing curses left and right. Harry was fighting Snape; Ron was fighting Bellatrix Lestrange; Hermione was fighting Malfoy; they were all fighting with absolute vigor and valiance, as if they thought they were immortal. The truth to the matter being, they believed the second they were in danger their 'wind' would come and save them.

"Avada Kedav-" Snape started, but before he could finish his eyes widened with shock and the words died in his mouth.

"Avada Kedavra," Harry cried, and Snape slowly fell to the ground, his back bending in an arc, almost gracefully. Everybody in the street watched, as if in slow motion. The Death Eaters were shocked: their new Dark Lord… dead in a few weeks. The Order looked horrified at Harry: of course he hadn't been the same ever since he killed Voldemort, but they had never thought that he would do it again. Of course, they knew it had to be done, they had been meaning to stun the Death Eaters… but Harry had set example… they had to kill them.

They all slowly turned back to their attacker, and returned to the fight, their destination set firmly and grimly in their minds.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Ron yelled, as he was knocked to the ground in the Crucio curse. His insides were being ripped out he was bleeding to death. He felt a sensation that was burning, freezing, ripping, tearing, oozing, and bleeding all at once. He was in the deepest, darkest pit in Hell. The pit was impossible to exit. He wished he would die, he wanted the pain to stop; he didn't care about life anymore.

Harry was feeling considerable pain too, but he, unlike Ron, did not have an attacker and he did not have the Crucius curse on him. He, unlike Ron, knew exactly what was happening as if a flashing, neon sign in his head was flashing the answer. His soul was being ripped out, his energy was being sucked out, and his life was slowly leaking from his body. Then it stopped and he fell to the ground, still, but alive.

Lestrange fell down… down… down… dead, nobody had cursed her. Nobody knew how she had died.

"Avada Ke-" Fred's attacker started.

Once again, Harry felt pain beyond pain. More life fled his body. Fred's attacker slumped to the ground.

This happened again and again, saving member after member of the Order. Harry losing more and more life, soul, and energy. He knew he was dying, the Order couldn't help him; he would die. He remembered, as if in a trance, a dream he had had once. Ginny and he had been about to be married… he grunted as more life fled from his body… and they had been in their honeymoon suite. Tears leaked from closed eyes… he would give anything to be with Ginny every second for the rest of his life: he loved her.

There was one more fight going on, Ginny was fighting a Dark Eater twice her age, with twice her experience. Harry had flash of insight. When the Order members had needed him his life had been sucked from his body, but know, at the moment of his death he had the choice. He could live and let Ginny die, or save Ginny and die. This may sound like a choice, but it wasn't, not for Harry.

He let his life go. He felt the last of his reserve flow towards Ginny's attacker. The attacker and he, as one, died. The Death Eater falling slowly to the street's ground, he turned over so he lay on his back, his wide empty eyes staring into the night sky.

The Order watched Harry, horrified, they sensed that he was dead. They could feel what was left of his soul lifting from his body, and they heard a whisper in the night air,

"_I love you, Ginny, always have, always will."_

( OoOoOoOh, the excitement! Please review… only one more chapter to go! What really happened to Harry? Find out in the next chapter!)


	18. The End

Chapter 17: The End

"He was the wind," a pale and crying Hermione acknowledged softly. "Harry fought Voldemort and Voldemort died, but they had to fight again, Harry won once more but gave up his life to save us."

Ginny hadn't stopped crying yet. She hadn't said anything either. She was staring at the floor almost no color in her face, a guilty, heavy feeling in her chest.

Everybody was quiet. It was plain to them what had happened, they didn't need Hermione to tell them. It was hard for them. There wasn't much of the Order left. Harry had been as much of a leader as Dumbledore. It hurt to lose him. Of course, now there was no more Order of the Phoenix; with no more Death Eaters they were un-needed.

"We just need to do this. Harry saved our lives. Let's give him a proper burial and go on with our lives. He gave up his life," Charlie said, softly yet firmly.

They all stared at Harry's casket. They were still upset, and would be for a while. Ginny hadn't talked since Harry's death. Ron and Hermione were displaying affection without a worry about what everybody else thought. Harry's death was bad, but it had caused many improvements overall. People weren't worried or scared anymore.

Just about the whole wizarding community turned up for the funeral. They all paid their respects, crying silently. The priest went up and did his bit. Ron and Hermione made speeches about what a great guy Harry had been, about what he had been through, about the impact of his life and death. Beautiful speeches.

Then it was Ginny's turn.

"What Harry and Hermione said were true. Harry was an excellent human being. Even when all of you guys treated him like dung, he lived on and kept saving life after life. If it wasn't for him, a lot of you guys would be dead, and you know it. Harry need not have died. He could have saved all these lives and lived, but he gave what was left of his life reserve to save me. He loved me, as I love him. He wanted us to be together, but he knew one of us had to die," she had everybody's 100 attention, there was absolutely no noise in the crowd. "But I want us to be together too. I love all of you guys, and I love Harry."

With these final words she pointed her wand at her chest. The crowd, including her family, watched in horror as Ginny's body fell to the floor of the raised ground. The magnigying spell placed on the stadium echoed the crash over and over again. The noise seemed to stick in their ears like glue. As the crowd watched, cried out, and looked on in horror, an odd peace settled over the crowd. Harry and Ginny were together, they were happy. There was no need to grieve. Ron laughed, and everybody rejoiced.

I'm sorry about the chapter 16. It had MAJOR mistakes but I fixed them. Please review. Did you like the ending?


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